The interim president of the New Jersey Institute of Technology has been appointed to the post permanently.

Joel Bloom was the school's vice president for academic and student services before he became its acting leader following the resignation of longtime president Robert Altenkirch last November NJIT's board of trustees announced Bloom's hiring on Tuesday, one day after they voted to make him leader of the 9,500-student university in Newark.

Bloom's salary and benefits package have not been finalized, but school officials say his term will run through June 2014.

Bloom has worked at NJIT for more than 20 years, and has won praise for boosting enrollment and shaping the university's academic plan. Before joining the school, he was an assistant commissioner for education during Governor Thomas Kean's administration.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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